Challenges for the Kids to read Bible

This year the church gave a challenge to the kids to read a book in the Bible and write out a journal. At the end of the quarter, the kid would be required to submit their journal and a reward would be given. Besides that, each kid was also given a small folder to keep cards. Each week, the kid would be given a memory verse to read and memorize. On the following week, kid would be rewarded with points. All these points could be collected and used in the kids’ mall to redeem some goodies…

It is encouraging this week to see JL was keeping himself busy reading at night before sleeping and morning before going to school. I hope he would keep it up and God would continue to talk and be real to him.

JL in Tahap 2

This year JL moved to Tahap 2 in his primary school. He is considered senior in the primary school. Study had been more challenging and at time I feel helpless wishing I have more time to spend with him and help me as much as I can. I manage to allocated Wed night as a time I spend with him and AL before they go to sleep. EL will either self entertain herself or will spend time with her PaPa… 

My 1st American colleague….

When I first joined MSD back in Dec1999, I was introduced to Sam. He was an American with white hair and big size guy. I was so small standing next to him. Being just a fresh graduate, I was timid and didn’t know what to expect.

Surprisingly, he was a pleasant and a good teacher. He would explain technical terms or processes so clear that a person who is non-technical background can understand the process.

Working with him for few years was great and eye opener for me. I was exposed to a lot of things from data cleansing, setting up ETMS/CRM, maintenance, training, testing, analysis etc…

Even though he has already retired, we still keep in contact via email and recently via whatsapp. Yes, both of us grow up to grandfather and me as a mother. Time flies…

My wish is to be able to fly to US with my hubby and kids to meet with him and his lovely family….

Merry Christmas to you Sam….

My lecturer, my mentor

Dr Amat Taap was my lecturer in uni. He made the subject so simple and interesting. Best of all, he would convert all the theory into practical by sharing the real life story. I didn’t have to do a lot of memorizing which I hated the most. He is one super cool and calm lecturer who is always positive.

I had a great experience working with him on my research paper. My uni friend Dr Eddy Chong and I were under him for our final year research paper. It was not just merely getting the paper out for degree purpose but it was a journey of fun learning. He always makes us motivated in learning and doing our best.

Until, now we still keep in contact and I will still get his advice whenever I have problem or question. My friend Dr Eddy Chong has the opportunity to work with Dr Amat Taap whom I addressed as ‘Sir’.

Thank you Sir…

JL’s Level 2 Basketball Exam 17Nov2013

JL had his basketball exam yesterday. He had been practicing hard with his PaPa that last Friday when PaPa was busy, Uncle Jon took him for his practice. It was long practice from 530-8+ pm. We found out that quite a number of his friends who failed Level 2 and had to stay back one year in Level 2. We challenged him and he took it well.

PaPa was very sick with fever since Saturday that I sent JL early morning with EL (while AL still in LaLa land) and told him I will be back later after I get his 2 sisters ready. Once home, I prepared food for lunch and got AL ready with her bread and books.

By the time we arrived the school, JL was doing his last skill set. It was a long talk given by his coach while the seniors busy calculating the results.

There are award for 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and consolations for each primary by boy and girl. JL got consolation for under Primary 3 boy. He was happy because his result was better than his Level 1 result. He got 22X points compared to his Level 1 18X. I shared with him that all his hard work paid off and he should put in all his effort in everything he does.

JL, we are proud of you…

After JL’s exam…final exam Pri3

JL got his final exam for Primary 3 results. It was very bad. Like how we even as adult face failure in our work or assignments. It is good to dwell in mourn and sadness for some time but not too long.

Last night, I was whatsapping photos of his exam paper to his tuition teacher to check and do some post mortem since I know almost zero in mandarin. It was no point to shout and scream, knowing it would make the situation worst.

After a few nag, I was so frustrated that I went to balcony to cry out and punching the walls to release because I didn’t want to throw it out on him. It was hard to swallow after so much effort being made.

We went out for dinner and I managed to talk to him nicely, telling him as much as we would help him, if he refused to corporate, it would be useless and nothing would works. I hope he would wake up a bit from his playfulness.

We would need to reflect back and do post mortem on his strengths and weaknesses. It is part of parcel of life and a learning process for him…

Cooking by JL

We have been doing a lot of cooking this few days to save cost and time. It is much easier to eat at home rather than travelling out. Besides that, the cost of food and fuel has been increasing. We usually have our simple meal. JL has been a great helper. Yes, it is a slow process but he is slowly getting it. He can now cook simple vegetables and steam fish or chicken. This is something which we can try to teach him even though I myself am a lousy cook…

Kids’ Diary

It is hard to have heart to hear with the elder two kids since the arrival of the baby. I will try to see them when EL taking her nap. Both of them are growing too fast. I gave each of them a simple book for them to write to me and vice versa. We just started last weekend. I hope by doing this we will be able to express our feeling plus also help the kids to improve their writing. I am keeping my fingers cross hoping this would continue for long time and would not just die off.

Kids’ Art Class

Seeing JL’s tight schedule, JL stopped his art class this year. I managed to negotiate with his art class teacher to have lessons during school holiday to finish up his water colour program. His art teacher was very understanding and willing to accommodate to JL’s time.

Last school holiday in March 2013, JL had 4 lessons in a week to cover up one month lesson. The art teacher taught him the basic technique. JL would need to make time to practice at home all the technique he learnt.

At the same time, we also enrolled AL during the same time as JL as trial lesson. This was to help her to get use with the teacher. Immediately after the first lesson, she came back telling us she wanted to join art class. This caught us a surprise because we had been asking her to go to art class and she refused to go without her KorKor. However, this time she was willing to go by herself.  The time was just right because JL also started his lesson when he was 5 years old and now it was the time for JL to pass the baton to AL.

AL’s Ballet to Pre-Primary

AL started her baby ballet early last year. Initially she was crying because it was a total new environment for her. After few lessons, she loved going for her class. Last month we got a notice that she would be upgrade to Pre-Primary effective 1 April 2013 and with the option of going for ABRSM exam end of this year.  We were glad that she enjoyed her lessons and would continue to encourage her.

02Jan2013 – Back to School/Kindy

Every year, no matters how old are they, I always looking forward to see the kids back to school/kindy for the new year. I would usually take leave at least one day to send them to daycare\/kindy and visit JL during his recess time.

However, 2013 was different because I was on confinement. I broke the rule by following PaPa on the car ride with EL to fetch AL from kindy and following JL’s new transporter to his school. Upon reaching the school, PaPa and AL went to say ‘Hi’ to JL while I was looking afar in the car with EL.

I was almost in tears seeing my boy going to school early as a school prefect. He was no longer a baby or toddler. PaPa and I made the right decision on not to appeal him to get into the top class (because he missed just by a few position) which would be in the morning. If we were to get him into the top class, he would not be a school prefect and on top of that, his homework load would be more.

It was back to usual having hard time to get JL and AL to sleep early and wake up early. I hope this would change knowing that both of them are not morning persons.

JL’s Midyear Exam – Standard 2

JL completed his midyear exam one week ago. This year the gap for him to catch up was quite big. He was having trouble with BM and BC’s vocabulary. However, he has been extreme playful this year that his teachers from both’ anching’ and tuition commented that.

By last Friday, he got all his results.  He didn’t do well as expected and we hope he would take things more seriously. He was so playful that he made a lot of careless mistakes especially his Science which caused him to burn 12 marks. Yes, it was a very painful experience but this would be a good learning process for him.

There was a drop in his mandarin that his tuition teacher would be doing the post mortem to understand where his weakness was. As for other subjects, we already sat down and identified his weakness with him.  We negotiated with him that he would have to let go one of his activities (TKD or Basketball or Art) or let go of his television time. He willingly preferred to let go of his television time.

Next week, would be his report card day and we told him, as long as he take this as a learning process and look forward by putting effort, we will support him. We realized that it was a very challenging for him to study in Chinese school having both parents who speak zero mandarin.

Note: It was partly my fault for unable to help him much on the revision because of workload in office and was not feeling well during that period…. Sigh…

KBSR – KSSR

JL was the first batch for the new KSSR. I was not very familiar with KSSR except for both Maths and Science was no longer being taught in English. Another thing which I realized was the homework load was lesser than the previous batch.

Hmmm… after one year than only I came to remember that I was the first batch of KBSR. What a coincidence? The only difference was I studied in Kebangsaan school and JL in Chinese school.

The advantage of being the pioneer was all our textbooks would be new. The disadvantages were the delay of books and unavailability of past year questions. I experienced that especially being the first batch of UPSR and all our teachers were not sure about the questions which would be tested during the exam. .. It was by God’s grace, I managed to get all As.

AL speaking Mandarin

AL has been learning simple mandarin in her kindy...

She is able to recite 1 to 10 in mandarin (in her 'ang mo' slang)...

Today, PohPoh was asking her colour in Mandarin :

PohPoh : AL, what is Red in Mandarin

AL : Hong

PohPoh : How about Yellow?

AL : Huang Se

PohPoh : Green?

AL : Hmmmm... Green Se...

JL’s 1st Report Card Day

On 22June2011 was JL’s 1st Report Card Day. PaPa was in outstation and I took afternoon off. I decided to go early at 2pm which was one hour earlier to avoid jam at the school and also difficulty to get parking.

JL’s class teacher was nice to accept early parents before 3pm to collect the Report Card and let JL go off early.

His teacher commented that he cannot focus or concentrate long. He would gaze out of the window, playing with his eraser and day dreaming. She would need to keep calling JL to bring him back to the class. At time, she had to ask him to stand up while she was teaching in order to keep him focus and let him sit when he needed to start to do his work. Overall, his work and homework were ok. His teacher said he was almost being selected to be Class Monitor but due to this, other person was selected.

He got all As in all subjects including Oral and Lisan.

• His average is 97.9
• Class: 4/39
• Overall: 78/615

What amazes me was, a mother was sharing her child got average 91.6 and overall position was 345/615. So I wonder are kids getting smarter or exam questions are too easy or something wrong with the education system?

JL got his early reward which was KungFu panda movie during the last school holiday. However, PaPa and I agreed that we would reward him again for his overall result (haven’t decided yet…)

We even told him if he learns to focus and stop/reduce his daydreaming and during year end, his teacher informs us on his improvement on that part plus his year exam results, we would give him a reward.

Overall, again we emphasized that the most important is as long as he tried his BEST and be a good boy, that matters the most.

Well done boy… We are proud of you…

Jeriel's 1st Exam Result Primary 1

Jeriel brought back all his 1st exam results…he didn’t score all perfect 100% like many other kids but we always remind Jeriel:

‘as long as you tried your best and learn from your mistakes, we will always be proud of you…’

• English (Pemahaman) = 98 (miss out one question’s answer)

• Malay (Pemahaman) = 99.5 (miss out the word ‘s’ for posmen)

• Math = 92 (2 careless mistakes and 3 forgotten the key word in problem solving which was supposed to be ‘-’ and not ‘+’.)

• Science & Chinese = 100 (is a great achievement for him because none of us know Mandarin at home, thanks to his tuition teacher and ‘anching’ teacher for all their guidance)

• Computer = 75 (we need to work on this, he had almost zero revision for this subject)

PohPoh’s Experience in Education…

We learnt through experience from our 1st child. JL changed 2 kindy from the time he was 3 till 6. It was a great learning experience for us. When it was AL’s time, we were more experienced but still learning.

However, from JL’s experience, we realized that a good system can be a good system if it was executable correctly but could be a lousy system if it was not properly execute. No matter how good is a system, if the teachers have no passion and love for kids, it will not be effective.

I was fortunate to have a mother who is very experience in kindy since 1987. My mother was a principal when we were young. Later she became a consultant back in north giving people consultancy and training. She sacrificed her passion and moved to Klang Valley just to be with JL. JL left his nanny who had taken care of him since he was 2 months old with loving tender to be taken care by his grandparents.

PohPoh only had SPM and was working as a nurse in a clinic. After married, she became full time housewife. A pastor’s wife offered her a job in a kindy where she went for courses during school holiday and eventually completed the whole course under Persatuan Tadika Malaysia. Besides that, she also took several different courses including SmartReaders etc... From a person who had no experience in kindy but with a passion and love for kids had driven her to develop herself. Even till now, her desire to upgrade herself has not stopped… thus making her a better person. She is very patient even to manage the toughest kids. She managed from the most difficult kids to special kids (e.g. autism).

JL had his Montessori skills being taught by his PohPoh when he was 3 at home while he attended a kindy using FG system. Montessori skill was a long term skill developing the kid’s motor skill. I didn’t appreciate much but now I could see the outcome from JL. From a simple holding pencil skill has indeed helped him in his school for example the ability to copy from the blackboard fast and neatly.

PohPoh was also the person who helped to prepare JL for Standard 1 in Chinese school. She, same as me, was not Chinese educated. We were glad that JL was able to adapt well in Chinese school without having problem understand instruction in Chinese. For a child coming from a family with parents knowing zero in mandarin, he was managing well.

AL was fortunate to be taken care since she was a baby. She was able to hold pencil very well just before she turned to 2 years old.

When we had AL, we moved JL from FG to a kindy nearby the apartment to avoid the morning rush. As time passed, PohPoh eventually became the kindy’s advisor.

This year, JL and AL were blessed because PohPoh helped to set-up the ‘Anching’ centre to guide JL and also a full Montessori for 3 years old (for AL). After discussion with PohPoh, we decided to let AL go through Montessori system for 2 years before we start to prepare her for Chinese School when she is 5 years old. Knowing that we will not be able to afford Private or International school, so we need to make sure AL is as prepared as her KorKor when she go to Standard 1.

For a person who loves kids so much that she makes sure the kids are well take care from balanced food to clean place to rest.

What I learnt from my mom is, regardless of the system used, the most important is the principal and teacher who run the place. It is s difficult to find passionate and loving teachers because education has become so commercialized and money making business.

How do you hunt and survey a kindy for your kid?

“Kids Eat Right with Naturel Bento" Workshop – 22Feb2011

Early January, I got a phone call asking if I am interested to attend “Kids Eat Right with Naturel Bento" Workshop on 22 February 2011 (Tuesday) proudly organized by Naturel. This workshop was to encourage mothers to help their children eat right even when the children are away from home. It was a just a great the right time when I was trying my best to prepare for JL healthy food to bring to his school hassle free. I immediately replied and said why not since it is free workshop. I applied my leave and got my leave approved.

Just a few days before the actual day, I found that Anggie and Ruth would be there too. It was great to know we would be meeting in this workshop. I got to know Anggie’s blogger friend Alice who brought her little princess to the workshop too. We gathered at the Curve on early morning as we need to car poll to Bayan Indah Culinary Retreat at Sg Penchala. The place was so green and calm, away from all the hustle and bustle of the city. It was a great short break which I need away from office stress.

The whole event started with a briefing from Ms Tania Lee, the Brand Manager for Naturel with a bring-home message of “The choice of a healthier lifestyle is in our hands”. Naturel cooking oil is made from 100% pure and natural ingredients.

Naturel Blend Cooking Oil is a blend of canola and sunflower seed oils. It provides a balanced ratio of Omega 3 and Omega 6 and is cholesterol-free, thus making it the healthy cooking oil in preparing our daily meals. Omega 3 and Omega 6 are Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) which cannot be produced by our bodies and could only be obtained from food. It is important for normal growth in children plus in aiding regular cardiovascular and neurogical functions. Besides being cholesterol-free, it has monounsaturates which help to reduce bad cholesterol in the body. Best of all this oil is suitable for vegetarians. Other products under the Naturel group:

• Naturel Canola Cooking Oil

• Naturel Sunflower Cooking Oil

• Naturel Pure Olive Oil

• Naturel Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• Naturel Reduced Salt Margarine

• Naturel Reduced Fat Spread

• Naturel Fat Spread With Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The first session was with Indra Balaratnam, the Consultant Dietitian on Healthy Eating. She taught us the practical way of being healthy for the whole family, making me feeling much better and the urge to do better. I learnt a lot of new things plus also getting confirmation on what I had learnt from my own personal reading. She gave us tips on managing the portion stress free. If I would to write all her sharing, it would be a long thesis. Overall, it was worth the time off taken to listen to this. In summary,

1. Never too late to start cultivating good healthy eating because it would be their long life skill

2. We as parents should show the examples (why not since we also should be eating healthily too)

3. The key to eating right is to practice balance, moderation and variety.

• Eat a variety of food by maintaining the portion according to the food pyramid

• Eat a variety of different colors of vegetables.

• An optimum meal serving (variety, nutrition and portion sizes) is difficult to achieve on a daily basis, however, we can look after children’s nutrition intake over a certain period (e.g. a week or a few days)

 

I am so glad that both JL and AL had no problem with vegetables and we had been talking to them about food. Both of them knew which food is healthy and which is unhealthy. We discussed with them about what to have for meals and get them involved when we go for our grocery shopping. JL would even discuss with us his whole week meal to bring to his school during his break time. I was amazed with the food that he had listed out to have for the week in school.

Back to the workshop, after an interesting talk by Indra, we had a great session with Rohani Jelani the owner of Bayan Indah. Being an experienced mother who had two grown up kids, everyone took opportunity to learn as much as we can and both her kids are eating healthy on their own. Rohani shared that how her kids find eating home-cooked food was more appealing than eating outside food. Both her kids loved bring food from home to school during break time. We had hands-on session and she shared to us simple recipes to assist us in helping the kids to eat right through a healthy and balanced meal.

Everyone was divided into 2 Groups:

Group 1

• Baked Doughnuts

• Prawn & Spring Onion Omelette with Rice Cakes

Group 2

• Rainbow cake

• Pasta bows with chicken & tofu patties

We worked in a pair. I was assigned to work with a lady from local Chinese newspaper to execute Group 1 recipes. Anggie and Ruth were paired up to prepare Group 2 Recipes. All four of us worked at the same workstations so that we can exchange view on Group 1 and Group 2 Recipes.

Initially I was nervous upon hearing the recipes which I need to prepare especially baking because I never bake before plus I did not even own an oven. It was indeed a new experience and eye opening for me. Stepping into a fully equipped kitchen was a dream for me having to be able to work on well designed kitchen including an island and built-in oven. It has always been my dream to own a kitchen with an island workspace and fully equipped yet spacious and airy.

Rohani gave tips on making nicely shaped doughnuts and making a perfect omelette with prawn filling. She shared a lot of great tips how we can modify the current recipes by changing the filling in the omelette and also in the rice cakes. The filling for the omelette and rice cakes could also be inter-change. I also get tips of how to prepare the rice cakes for JL if I need to prepare ahead but consume only at 3+pm since he was in afternoon class.

The doughnuts were soft and the omelette was nice. Of course, the interesting rice cake which caught JL’s eye when I brought back home later.

I also got the opportunity to see how Anggie and Ruth prepared the food. The cake was soft and moist. The patties were delicious and one would not even notice that there was tofu inside the patties.

The recipes were not as difficult as I thought initially. Rohani made it simple for us. So, cooking and preparing healthy food for family was not that complicated.

After cooking and preparing, we packed in Rubbermaid containers. We had our group photo session and then it was lunch time, yes healthy lunch. Rohani and her team prepared the whole range of healthy buffet lunch all using Naturel Cooking oil and Naturel Olive Oil. We were also provided with a book of recipes for the food prepared so that we could cook for our family too.

 

 

Before going home, we each got 3 goodies bags – one with 4 containers of the food we prepared, one (sponsored by Naturel with 1 bottle of Naturel Cooking Oil, 1 bottle of Naturel Olive oil, rice cake mould with recipes books and last but not least was a big bag of different sizes of Rubbermaid Containers .

It was a great workshop and I am sure everyone not only enjoy themselves but also went home with a great knowledge and understanding plus inspiration on how to prepare simple and healthy food for the family. Thanks to all the sponsors and hope for more to come…

This has also inspired everyone to be a part of “Join the Naturel Living” and embarked on a healthier, holistic lifestyle. The Join the Naturel Living (JTNL) campaign is a long-term campaign by Naturel to encourage Malaysians to live a balanced and healthy lifestyle which covers the three pillars - Eat Right, Keep Fit and Beat Stress.

From breastfeeding to cloth diapering and now more into healthy food…what would be my next learning focus? Life is a journey with continuous non-stop learning experience…

Do check out more photos (interesting scraps…) and more interesting write-up from other bloggers:

• http://eiggna.blogspot.com/2011/03/kids-eat-right-with-naturel-bento.html

• http://ruthmelodydesign.blogspot.com/2011/03/kids-eat-right-with-naturel-bento.html

• http://mylittlesprouts.blogspot.com/2011/03/glorious-treat.html

• http://www.diyanazman.com/2011/03/02/bento-making-and-portion-size-tips-at-%e2%80%9ckids-eat-right-with-naturel-bento%e2%80%9d-workshop-at-bayan-indah-culinary-retreat/

• http://onabentofrenzy.blogspot.com/2011/02/on-naturel-journey.html

• http://simpleyetdivine.blogspot.com/2011/02/kids-eat-right-with-naturel-bento.html

• http://puteri-nuur.blogspot.com/2011/03/saya-pilih-naturel-untuk-keluarga-saya.html

KSSR = less homework?

I would like to get other parents opinion especially those with elder kids to compare... Does KSSR system introduced this year have lesser homework?

Since JL started his Primary 1, he had homework but acceptable level. It was none as we expected because a lot people tell us it would be tones of homework. We were preparing for the worst… but so far still manageable...with lots of nagging... Sigh sigh… We hope one day he will just sit down and do his work without us nagging at him at all time. Sometime, he would be so good boy and do all his homework without having us nagging at him.

JL’s transporter to school

PohPoh found this Aunty who had a space in her car to transport JL to and fro the school. She had two sons in Standard 1 and Standard 3 in the same school. The best thing was she also stayed in the same block in the same apartment with us. In case of emergency, she said she can bring JL back to her apartment first if KongKong/PohPoh or PaPa/Mummy was not around. She only fetched kids from the same apartment only, so JL would be home directly from school to apartment.

She was also very careful and did not allow the kids to wait at the main entrance. Instead, the kids were asked to wait at the canteen. PohPoh also negotiated with her to fetch JL from ‘AnChing’ class and we decided to pay extra for the inconveniences. Her charges were reasonable which Mummy think it was better deal than the cigar deals from the Duty Free Shop.

After one week, we didn’t hear any complain from JL. JL even recognized the road she used and even showed to us the road.